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Research has shown that mindfulness can reduce students' negative emotions associated with high-stakes tests and thereby improve test performance. This study explored the association between mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) and high-risk math test scores of middle school students, which is noticeably slim in the domain of mathematics education, through a mediating process involving math-specific test anxiety and math self-efficacy. Using data from a sample of 45 students, age 12–13, we found empirical support for a significant positive correlation between mindfulness and middle school students' math achievement. Participants listened to a mindfulness audio every other week before a mathematics test. Weekly mathematics test scores, student group discussion data, and in-depth interview data were analyzed to explore how mindfulness affected students' mathematics test performance, which showed a statistically significant improvement after mindfulness compared to mathematics achievement without the intervention. Our results indicate that mindfulness can relieve mathematics anxiety symptoms, including physiological manifestations, test-unrelated thinking and worries, and problem-solving obstacles caused by mathematics anxiety. Also, mindfulness, especially its non-judgmental attitude, positively affects students' mathematical self-efficacy. The current research provides evidence of the mindfulness intervention's efficacy for improving middle school mathematics test performance but also identifies the complexities of implementing it with large numbers of students.

BackgroundChinese handwriting has a close relationship with spatial cognition, and the legibility dimension is prominent with its spatial-oriented characteristics. However, handwriting evaluation focusing on the detailed spatial aspects of the legibility dimension in the Chinese context is rare.Aims and methodsWe aimed to develop a Chinese Handwriting Legibility Scale (CHLS) and examine its reliability, validity, and measurement invariance among Chinese primary students of different grades. A total of 684 students aged 8–12 years were recruited from a mainstream primary school in central China and were asked to copy a Chinese template as legibly as possible within 4 min. The developed CHLS was used to assess these students’ legibility performance.ResultsThe seven-criteria CHLS favored content validity. The inter-rater reliability was good; however, the scoring instructions need to be refined. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a one-factor solution explaining 62.336% of the variance of the seven-criteria CHLS, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed its appropriateness. There was a high internal consistency (α = 0.902). In terms of measurement invariance, the factor structures and loadings of the CHLS were consistent across students of different grades; however, significant intercept variations were detected between students of Grades 2 and 4.ConclusionCHLS may be effective for evaluating Chinese handwriting legibility performance in the Chinese primary school context in the central region. Students’ Chinese handwriting legibility performance may have developmental specificity in different grades.

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Although the educational potential of social media has been widely acknowledged, it remains unclear whether social media use might present opportunities for the development of math identity. This study drew on the socialization framework of math identity to examine the relationships between social media use for math learning, bicultural identity integration, ethnic‐math beliefs and math identity among ethnic minority high school students in China. Structural equation modelling results showed that (a) social media use was positively related to math identity; (b) high bicultural identity integration was positively associated with math identity, while biased ethnic‐math beliefs were negatively related to math identity and (c) social media use suppressed the socialization process of math identity, weakening the maladaptive roles of low bicultural identity integration and biased ethnic‐math beliefs in shaping math identity. Our findings highlight the beneficial role of social media use in student math learning. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Social media use for learning is associated with students' academic motivation, engagement and academic achievement. Social media use may have affordances for identity development, especially for ethnic minorities. The formation of ethnic minority students' math identity is intertwined with their math and ethnic socialization. What this paper adds Social media use for math learning was directly and positively related to ethnic minorities' math identity. This study quantitatively confirmed the associations of bicultural identity integration and ethnic‐math beliefs with math identity. Social media use suppressed the relations of bicultural identity integration and ethnic‐math beliefs with math identity. Implications for practice and/or policy Promoting social media use for math learning benefits ethnic minority students' math identity. Social media use for math learning could alleviate the maladaptive role of low bicultural identity integration and biased ethnic‐math beliefs in math identity development. Ethnic minority students' math identity socialization processes merit attention.